Check out the States/Districts that have implemented Singapore Math Programs.
Hosted by Cassandra Turner http://singaporemathsource.com/curriculum/schools-in-the-news/
Schools in the News
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Connecticut
Glastonbury starting Math in Focus: New Glastonbury [...]

Sadly, the latest testing data from Ontario’s Education and Quality and Accountability Office is unsurprising: Student performance in mathematics is continuing its downward trend for the fifth straight year.
It doesn’t matter whether your child attends a highly sought-after publicschool, or a not so stellar one: Chances are the school’s math [...]

We are shifting the focus in public education away from academic knowledge, so are these students really going to be ready for the 21st century?
How do you measure Non-academic World Force Skills? Students are lacking literacy and content knowledge, but can work in groups, but where are the skills and academic knowledge? We need to do more [...]

CANADA facing same issues on Failing Math !
Here’s some bad news from the world of education: Math scores are in decline across Canada. Just as kids in Poland and Portugal and other formerly disadvantaged countries are taking great leaps forward, ours are going backward. Our high schools are graduating kids who have failed to grasp the fundam [...]

My students come to me for math tutoring because they continue to flounder with the “new math” curriculum. For a complete description of what is being taught and how it feels for students, see Part I of this series. Part I – The New Math: Why We Have It
If expert mathematicians have redesigned the curriculum, why aren’t the results bette [...]

The NEW Math: Part I – WHY We Have It
“PLEASE, can you help me, Mrs. D.? We are having a math test TOMORROW and I don’t understand anything!” This has been the most common complaint I have from my sixth- and seventh-grade tutoring students (ages 11-13). Whether the topic involves geometry, equations, story problems, or even [...]

Classroom chaos? Critics blast new Common Core education standards
Published September 04, 2013
FoxNews.com
A full year before students around the nation submit to the new Common Core standardized tests, the federally-backed program is already causing chaos and confusion at local school board meetings, in the classroom and at the dinner table [...]

Is Common Core really saying this or our administrators once again spreading misinformation which then becomes truth to those (teachers, parents, students…) who hear it? Explain the reason for a wrong answer is OKAY!

AP Calculus tests should be aligned with the Common Core, so why does Calculus sit outside of the Common Core? Does Calculus exceed the approved 15% over the Common Core Standards?
Why are we changing the AP tests…to hide the decline in college-readiness? If the AP Calculus test changes then one cannot compare pre-Common Core standards [...]

Published: Monday, April 08, 2013 By Meg Learson Grosso
Photo by Meg Learson Grosso Three students from Fairfield’s Roger Ludlowe Middle School talked about whether they liked or didn’t like the new method of teaching Algebra I in the eighth grade.
View and purchase photos
Three students taking 8th grade Alg [...]

By Meg Learson Grosso, June 6, 2013
In a victory for Fairfield parents, the Connecticut State Board of Education voted today to investigate the use of an Algebra I text book , before it had been voted on by the Fairfield Board of Education.
Attorney Laura Anastasio, who investigated the matter for Stefan Pryor, the state Commissioner of Educa [...]

Photo by Meg Learson Grosso From left, Board of Education members, Perry Liu, John Convertito and Jennifer Kennelly. By Meg Learson Grosso
View and purchase photos
Fairfield Board of Education member Perry Liu has said that Phil Dwyer’s opinion piece, which ran in this newspaper last week, was “grossly inappropriate, [...]

John Llewellyn and Eileen Liu-McCormack won the Republican primary for seats on the Board of Education. Contributed photo. Published: Wednesday, July 24, 2013
by Meg Learson Grosso
View and purchase photos
Republican incumbents Pamela Iacono and Robert B. Bellitto, Jr. lost bids for re-nomination when Republicans hel [...]

The Fairfield Board of Education reached a settlement with the parents who lodged a complaint with the state regarding the textbook piloted in Algebra I classes in the 2012-13
Members of Fairfield’s Board of Education. Credit: Patch File Photo.
300school year.
Posted by Caitlin Mazzola (Editor) , July 26, 2013 at 01:23 PM
[...]

Board of Education members, include Vice Chairwoman Pam Iacono and Chairman Philip Dwyer, met briefly in public session Wednesday — after closed-door discussions — to approve proposed settlement of a complaint filed against school officials over the use of a “pilot” Algebra text in the last school year. FAIRFIELD CITI [...]

Published: Wednesday, June 19, 2013 – Meg Learson Grosso
The discussion was sometimes heated as the Fairfield Board of Education talked about the state’s decision to investigate Fairfield’s use of a controversial Algebra I textbook without the approval of the board. According to state law, there must be such approval.
Board memb [...]

Any time members of a town board want to go behind closed doors to discuss the public’s business, the public should pay close attention.
And it’s time to pay close attention to the Fairfield Board of Education. (scroll down for comment section)
The board remains mired in a controversy involving the use this school year [...]

Should all students take Algebra 2?
Florida seemed to say “no” this spring with the passage of a law striking it from graduation requirements. Texas said much the same in legislation Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed this week that also backs away from Algebra 2 for all.
Those steps come as the Common Core State Standards for ma [...]

Synthesize your skill sets and apply them to the problems in this blog. This is not the same as discovery learning and students are not figuring out basic skills, rather they are solving complex problems of the highest caliber.
http://fivetriangles.blogspot.com/2013/05/68-volume-of-solid.html

Jim Stergios
In today’s Globe, Ed Glaeser, an economist by trade and a member of the Gates Foundation advisory board for domestic programs, shares his thoughts on education standards – a topic on which we generally refer to experts. Think national education experts like Sandra Stotsky, James Milgram, Ze’ev Wurman, Mark Bauerlein, and folks wh [...]

THE STONE June 16, 2013, 10:20 pm 414 Comments
The Faulty Logic of the ‘Math Wars’
By ALICE CRARY and W. STEPHEN WILSON
There is a great progressive tradition in American thought that urges us not to look for the aims of education beyond education itself. Teaching and learning should not be conceived as merely instrumental affairs; t [...]

Does your child need tutoring? Give your child a free at-grade-level assessment.
By Laurie H. Rogers- November 5, 2012
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. … Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of thei [...]

Core Connections CPM Algebra 1 Textbook
On April 24th, the State’s investigation into the complaint that Fairfield changed its Algebra 1 textbook without Board of Education (BOE) approval concluded that the “Fairfield Board failed to vote on the change of textbook for Algebra I classes, as required by C.G.S. Section 10-229.”
On Jun [...]

Even Sponge Bob’s Friends DON’T WANT CPM in their district under the sea!
Patrick Star is a pink starfish who lives under a rock, but he even knows better than to use CPM for Math!
> http://www.hsmemes.com/locale/12720/

Photo by Meg Learson Grosso At State Board of Education meeting in Hartford on June 5 is (from left) vice-Chairman Theresa Hopkins-Staten, Chairman Allan B. Taylor, and state Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor.
By Meg Learson Grosso / Published: Wednesday, June 12, 2013
In a victory for Fairfield parents, the Connecticut State Board of E [...]

Who decided what when? Math text controversy rolls on
Andrew Brophy/ Updated 6:00 pm, Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Superintentdent of Schools David Title, in a 2012 photo, on Tuesday defended school administrators’ role in the “pilot” use of a math textebook that sparked months of contoversy and prompted parents to file a c [...]

We are shortchanging America’s brightest students, and we’re doing it reflexively and furtively. A big part of the problem is our desire to duck hard choices when it comes to kids and schooling. “Differentiated instruction” — the notion that any teacher can simultaneously instruct children of wildly different levels of ability in a single cla [...]

INTRODUCTION
Gavin Potenza
It sounds so democratic, a very American idea: break down the walls of “remedial,” “average” and “advanced” classes so that all students in each grade can learn together, with lessons that teachers “differentiate” to challenge each individual. Proponents of this a [...]

Grouping Students by Ability Regains Favor in Classroom
Cheryl Senter for The New York Times
Sharon Shea teaching first grade by skill level at Woodman Park Elementary in Dover, N.H.
By VIVIAN YEE
Published: June 9, 2013 703 Comments
It was once common for elementary-school teachers to arrange their classrooms by ability, placing the highest- [...]

PS 89: A Question of Philosophy
Tribeca Trib
January, 1998
Carl Glassman
Phoebe is not yet two, but her mother, Liz Berger, is already thinking about an elementary school for her. And she knows now that she would like to have a choice.
“How do I know that PS 234 is going to be the right school for her?” said Berger, a new m [...]

PS 150 Becomes Math Rebel Among Progressive Downtown SchoolsPS 150 Principal Jenny Bonnet with Math in Focus materials that her school has begun using. “As the years progress, I think more and more schools will be opting for this,” she said. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
By CARL GLASSMAN
Posted Jun. 03, 2013
Just days before P [...]

HARTFORD — The state Board of Education is being asked Wednesday to open an inquiry into the Fairfield Public School system’s full-year use of an Algebra 1 textbook without getting school board approval as state statutes require.
Even though the Fairfield board eventually scrapped the textbook that some parents deemed “fuzzy math,” the situa [...]

Linda Conner Lambeck
Updated 11:41 pm, Wednesday, June 5, 2013
HARTFORD — The state Board of Education has determined that there is sufficient cause to order a formal inquiry into charges that the Fairfield public school system violated state statutes by its full-year use of an Algebra 1 textbook without school board approval. [...]

If committed educators could be easily trained to implement a low-cost intervention that boasted consistent learning gains for all students, headlines would herald the discovery of the educational holy grail.
That low-cost intervention is here and readily available. It’s called ability grouping. Unfortunately, despite overwhelming evidenc [...]

May 29, 2013
Common Core And ‘Deep Understanding’
On the Brown Center Chalkboard, a blog produced by the Brookings Institution, Tom Loveless has a terrific post (not just because he cites me). He writes:
Deeper Learning is the current term for an old idea. The notion is that schools spend too much time focused on the acquisition o [...]

The premise is simple. If public schools don’t teach algebra or chemistry or history or great literature or how to write well—the old-fashioned learning that has been around for centuries and remains high status knowledge in most cultures—rich kids will get it somewhere else. Poor kids won’t.
Tom Loveless | May 29, 2013 11:00am
The [...]

Jamie Gass and Charles Chieppo: Common Core Education Is Uncommonly Inadequate
The federal intrusion in schools also brings standards that are academic-lite.
May 27, 2013, 6:42 p.m. ET By JAMIE GASS
AND CHARLES CHIEPPO
Massachusetts student test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and SATs were unremarkable in th [...]

math/2013/05/28/82d8ad94-c76b-11e2-9cd9-3b9a22a4000a_story.html
May 28, 2013 07:52 AM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, May 28, 12:52 AM
By Associated Press
Of the 45 states that adopted the Common Core reading, math and writing standards, nine are having second thoughts.
Some states are seeking to slow implementation, while others are trying to repea [...]

Students depend strongly on the website to complete assignment through using e-books or social media. However, not every student has access.
~25% of Connecticut households do not have a broadband connection according to National Telecommunications and Information Administration latest report published in Nov 2011 based on 2010 data (slightly [...]

Understanding the Answers to each of the remaining allegation in the complaint, as to why the District believes there were no technical violations:
“no change to the math textbook….textbook has not yet been finally adopted by the Board as it is part of a pilot program which has not yet been completed. Parents have yet to see the [...]

The Investigation of the Complaint was conducted under the direction of Commissioner Stefan Pryor. Fairfield parents are still waiting for a full report of the investigate from the Connecticut State Department of Education.
Download (PDF, 567KB)

And as national social studies standards now come rolling in they will also learn about new American heroes, like Common Core’s biggest funder, billionaire Bill Gates. One elementary school textbook published by Pearson, the giant international publishing company that has helped develop Common Core tests, contains several pages of tribute to [...]

Indiana has become the first state to retreat from the Common Core standards, as Governor Mike Pence has just signed a bill suspending their implementation.
A great deal has been written and spoken about Common Core, but it is worth rehearsing the outlines again. Common Core is a set of math and English standards developed largely w [...]

September 18, 2012
Young, Gifted and Neglected
By CHESTER E. FINN Jr.
Washington
BARACK OBAMA and Mitt Romney both attended elite private high schools. {so do Obama’s daughters} Both are undeniably smart and well educated and owe much of their success to the strong foundation laid by excellent schools.
Every motivated, high-pot [...]

Perhaps the most curious Common Core criticism comes on the math side, with opponents arguing that the standards are squishy, progressive, and lacking in rigorous content. While Common Core math standards do articulate ten math “practices,” mathematical content dominates the K–12 expectations. Unlike many of the replaced state standards, Comm [...]

As can be seen, our existing elementary curriculum, which has been under the same leadership, has significantly deteriorated our standing. Eight of the eleven schools dropped in state ranking over the 2007 to 2012 time period. The Fairfield, CT school ranking based on CMT 4th grade 2007-2012 does not support the socioeconomic theory; Mill Hil [...]

Sunday, April 28, 2013
Letter from Huck: I Sneak in the Back Window and Teach How to Attend to Precision
Out in Left Field proudly presents the twelth in a series of letters by an aspiring math teacher formerly known as “John Dewey.” All personal and place names have been changed to protect privacy.
Dedicated readers of my [...]

Students who receive free lunch outperform more affluent districts. So affluence is not a major determining factor in performance as some districts make it seem.
Still, it’s an impressive accomplishment by the two city schools: At Bronx Science, 46 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunch; at Stuyvesant, 42 percent. Yet these [...]

Quantitative reasoning entails habits of creating a coherent representation of the problem at hand; considering the units involved; attending to the meaning of quantities, not just how to compute them; and knowing and flexibly using different properties of operations and objects.
These videos show two student working through the same math pro [...]

The Following Table is populated with the percentage of students receiving GOAL RANGE for FAIRFIELD and the STATE, as a whole. The elementary curriculum leaders have been stating that the new curriculum based on “FUZZY MATH” has been successful based on the CMT results. That being said, CMT math scores (2007-2012) show Fairfiel [...]

Comment to Article : How about that After more than a decade using uber trendy Teachers College reading programs and NCTM “new-new” math programs in NYC we see what some warned of long ago, certainly parents in Manhattan where the programs were piloted – who were forced to tutor their children halfway through their K- [...]

Published Online: March 26, 2013- Education Week
Published in Print: March 27, 2013, as More Teachers Group Students by Ability
Study finds oft-disparaged approach rising
By Sarah D. Sparks click here for link
After being condemned as discriminatory in the 1990s, grouping students by academic ability seems to be back in vogue with a new g [...]

Deceptive semantics has created much confusion among many educators between Teacher-directed Instruction (traditional education) and Direct Instruction. Major difference between the two is the method in which the content is taught.
Teacher-directed Instruction is used in traditional education. Traditional education focuses on content-rich c [...]

click here for the video and article
Rochester, N.Y. – The state’s largest teachers union is launching an ad campaign an online petition protesting the Common Core tests. Students in grades 3 through 8 will take the math and English tests next month.
“It’s a setup for failure,” said John Pavone of the Rochester Teachers Association. Tea [...]

click here for article
Last year at a meeting of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (a Presidential appointed panel charged with drafting recommendations on how best to prepare students for algebra), a woman named Sherry Fraser read a statement into the public record which began as follows:
“How many of you remember your high schoo [...]

BARRY GARELICKMAR 26 2013, 10:20 AM ET
solgas/Shutterstock
Is it my imagination, or have you noticed that public high school courses that are now called “honors” are equivalent to the regular “college prep” curriculum of earlier eras? And have you also noticed that what is now called “college prep” is [...]

It was parent-teacher conference day this week. Always fun, especially when your kid is doing really well (ok, except when it comes to practicing self control… you know what they say about the apple and the tree… I take the genetic blame here). So why am I so annoyed?
On the one hand, I am delighted that my son has surpassed gra [...]

Most people who know me are well aware that I left the city — the coveted big, but cheap apartment, the day care we loved, the neighborhood we called home — for one, big reason: Schools. Isn’t that why anyone who has a decent-sized apartment leaves NYC?
My son’s well-regarded elementary school had lost its [...]

Bill and Melinda Gates have a great deal of control over the funding of and profiting from the educational reform in America!
InBloom, a nonprofit start-up founded with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Carnegie Corporation, is taking center stage and spreading around some significant funds as an official sponsor of th [...]

New York State and NYC Department of Education, along with 8 other states (MA, LA, CO, IL, NC, GA, DE, KY), have agreed to share confidential student and teacher data with a Gates-funded corporation called inBloom Inc. There is an article about this unprecedented project here.
Below is more information and an opt-out letter you can email to [...]

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – A new national database that compiles personal student information for educational companies that contract with public schools is being blasted by privacy experts.
New York State officials, working with the city, have already uploaded students’ names, addresses, test scores, learning disabilities, attendance an [...]

March 20, 2013
National Database of School Children Launched
Last week the SXSWedu Technology Conference in Austin, Texas, featured a new project that has many educational technology companies very excited – and that has many parents angry and deeply concerned. The project is called inBloom – a massive national database of personal informatio [...]

In December 2012, the latest international test scores were released. The Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) is given every four years, and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is given every five years. The latest results came from the 2011 administration of both tests, a unique event. Because of [...]

As recently as 1990, taking algebra in eighth grade was unique. That has changed dramatically in recent years, and now more eighth graders take algebra than any other math class. Enrollment in eighth-grade algebra—and in other advanced math classes—varies by state. This section of the Brown Center Report exploits that variation to study the [...]

This study examines the use of ability grouping and tracking in America’s schools. Recent NAEP data reveal a resurgence of ability grouping in fourth grade and the persistent popularity of tracking in eighth-grade mathematics. These trends are surprising considering the vehement opposition of powerful organizations to both practices. Although [...]

To the Editor:
Ever since it became public several months that the School Administration changed the math curriculum without consulting the Board of Education and without disclosing to parents, I, like many, have been silently fuming. I have no child in the public schools any longer, but when they were, I was involved deeply in town governmen [...]

No digital tablet will ever replace the comfort of a hardcover textbook. Technology is handy, but we all prefer to peruse a textbook when searching for information rather than scrolling through mulitple pages of information on-line. Some of us don’t have the luxury of a digital tablet or computer, so this is not an option. Emma has the [...]

Wakeman said each district has had success with its respective program — however he pointed out that in all three cases the program had to be supplemented in order for it to align properly with the district’s in-house curriculum.
Wakeman said although all four textbook programs have unique features and strengths, none are what might be [...]

The Case for Differentiated Differentiation - click here
One of the first steps of advocating for academically talented students is identifying that their educational needs aren’t being met in the classroom. Obviously, there are numerous ways this can be done. One compelling way was recently reported in a recent Gifted Child Quarterly arti [...]

CHESTNUT HILL, MA—According to an alarming new report published Wednesday by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, third-graders in China are beginning to lag behind U.S. high school students in math and science.
The study, based on exam scores from thousands of students in 63 participating countries, co [...]

My daughter — a bright, fun-loving 8-year-old who isn’t easily rattled — was reduced to tears in school yesterday. Apparently, while working on a math lesson involving fractions, she wasn’t “getting it” the way that she thought she should, and her frustration mounted and her eyes welled up and, later, when [...]

In honor of Pi day, I wanted to find some comparison problems involving circumferences and areas of circles. 6th grade Sinapore Math has a whole chapter devoted to “Circles,” so I turned next to the 6th grade Everyday Math curriculum. To my surprise, there isn’t a single problem in the entire curriculum involving circle are [...]

Many students begin higher education unprepared for college-level work in mathematics and must take non-credit developmental courses. Furthermore, many are math-phobic and avoid courses, majors and careers that involve quantitative work. Yet science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields are among the few job-growth are [...]

Countless students across the country whose lack of basic math skills may hurt their college career. Will they be “college and career ready” with these reform math programs? Practice your multiplication… master the fundamentals, so you can move on to more advanced math material.
Reform Math is heavy on story problems and lig [...]

Westport, BOE Singapore Math Presentation – March 2012
Westport School System is pushing for all subject curriculums to development across K-12 – not just one level. They want to show how one subject builds across K-12. – See it as One. (time 44:30)

Burr and Dwight Elementary School have been Flexible grouping for over 5 and 8 years respectively, so why isn’t it offered at other elementary schools?
Burr School was recognized for its “Exemplary Programming for Flexible Grouping in Mathematics” (see below).
Parents from other schools have requested the same instructional [...]

Press Conference: Senator William Ligon Introduces SB 167- that would have Georgia withdraw from the Common Core Curriculum – February 28, 2013
Are these standards really preparing students to be “career and college ready”?
Senator states it will cost $30 million dollars across the state to adopt the Common Core.
Listen to D [...]

You need to add, subtract, multiply and divide to code. Computer programming is an empowering skill to learn. Programmers of tomorrow are the wizards of the future!
Schools don’t teach kids how to read or write code… WHY NOT?
It’s [computer programming] about breaking down problems rather than discovering algorithms.
Gates s [...]

Automatic recall of single-digit number facts.
ie flashcard device.
Mastery of the Standard Computational Algorithms for Numbers in All Forms: By the end of elementary school, students should have mastered the standard methods for adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing whole numbers, fractions, and decimals. Fairfi [...]

Results show that several Asian countries continue to outperfoem the US in Math and Science.
Math and Science are subjects crucial to economic competitiveness and research! Could these oppressive scores define US children as inherently less intelligent than children in other countries? Will the dubious “college and career readiness̶ [...]

Third graders are concrete thinkers. They are just learning the basics of fractions. They stay stuck in concrete thinking unless their teacher and their district’s curriculum helps them develop ABSTRACT thinking. They need to understand the basics first… halves and eights.
My daughter — a bright, fun-loving 8-year-old who [...]

Singapore Math and the Common Core Standards
Singapore Math and the Common Core Standards in Mathematics
The introduction to the Common Core Standards in mathematics contains the following quote:
The composite standards [of Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore] have a number of features that can inform an international benchmarking process for the [...]

December 11, 2012 – NY Times
By MOTOKO RICH Clich here for link
Fourth- and eighth-grade students in the United States continue to lag behind students in several East Asian countries and some European nations in math and science, although American fourth graders are closer to the top performers in reading, according to test results r [...]

Parents urge you to spend a few minutes reading these comments provided by a Fairfield parent. You can make your own assessment. The program most lacking in public comment and analysis outside of sponsor-related marketing material is Origo Stepping Stones-a new program
1)Analysis/ Comparison of Singapore Math, Math in Focus and TERC (Origo St [...]

Posted by swhited on Friday, December 30th, 2011 at 8:32 am
Singapore Math: Ending the Spiral of Non-Mastery
Singapore is a world leader in math education, but that wasn’t always the case. Starting in 1980, Singapore began to develop its own curriculum instead of importing textbooks from other countries with dramatic results. Singapore’s stud [...]

October 10th, 2012
03:02 PM ET
My view: America’s students can benefit from Singapore math
By Bill Jackson, Special to CNN
Editor’s note: Bill Jackson was a Paterson, New Jersey math teacher and a district-wide math teacher trainer in Scarsdale, New York. He also provides consulting and teacher training on Singapore or Japane [...]

“How do you transform an education that is good at exam success and learning mastery into something that is flexible and creative without losing rigor?” -Bill Jackson
Singapore’s Transformation in Education The Creativity & Critical Thinking Initiative See Core Principles Below
By Bill Jackson
A U.S. Math Teac [...]

A Math Teacher’s Travel Journal to Singapore The Singapore Math Forum
Day 1 - Part 2
The Professional Lives of Teachers
by Bill Jackson Monday, 31 August, 2010, Singapore
Teachers work very hard at the Singapore Girls’ Chinese School (SGCS), normally arriving by around 7:00 AM and going home at around 5:00 PM, sometimes a [...]

The Daily Riff EXCLUSIVE
Editor’s Note: Singapore is notable for their outstanding Math scores (here and here) internationally. Yet the lessons and Singaporean practices learned and shared by American Math teacher Bill Jackson during this past week’s trip to Singapore, not only surprises(!) but also may seem extremely counter- [...]

Better For Problem Solving? Why Are Visualizations & Drawing As Important As Numbers? Plus Bonus Video Below
Editor’s Note: Math-phobia is one of the more challenging issues for our students and for this country’s educational make-up and there is much to learn from other leading countries such as Singapore.
This i [...]

. . .this deep understanding of elementary math seems to be lacking in many U.S. teachers. I know because I was one of them before I began this journey and I am still learning . . .” –Bill Jackson
ED. Note: Math-phobia is one of the more challenging iss [...]

The Daily Riff is featuring a four-part series Singapore Math Demystified! by Bill Jackson, Math Helping Teacher, Scarsdale, NY Public Schools, one of the highest performing districts in the country, due to popular interest in this topic from parents and schools. If you missed Part 1, Why I Became Interested in Singapore Math, check it out [...]

Singapore Math:
Can It Help Solve Our Country’s Math-phobia?
Editor’s Note: Due to the interest expressed over our previous posts about Singapore Math and the non-Singaporean-specific classic, “Why Our Kids Don’t Get Math” here, The Daily Riff is featuring an exclusive original four-part series by Bill Jack [...]

Key Early Skills for Later Math Learning Discovered
July 25, 2011 — Psychologists at the University of Missouri have identified the beginning of first grade math skills that teachers and parents should target to effectively improve children’s later math learning.
A long-term psychology study indicates that beginning first graders tha [...]

Basic Math Skills Linked to PSAT Math Success
Jan. 4, 2013 — New research from Western University provides brain imaging evidence that students well-versed in very basic single digit arithmetic (5+2=7 or 7-3=4) are better equipped to score higher on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT), an examination sat by millions of students in [...]

Dr. Title, Mr. Dwyer and other BOE members ask the Fairfield Parents to have faith in our Administrators’ recommendations and decisions as they relate to the Math Education and Programs our children will be receiving in this district for the next several years… TERC Investigations and CPM!
It is upsetting for the Fairfield paren [...]

DURING GYM CLASS!
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — On a recent afternoon, the third graders in Sharon Patelsky’s class reviewed words like “acronym,” “clockwise” and “descending,” as well as math concepts like greater than, less than and place values.
During gym class.
Ms. Patelsky, the physical education teacher at Everglades Elementary School here, [...]

The directives of the Common Core Standards, English and Mathematics, are being misinterpreted by administrators… How can the community in these districts educate the administration about the intentions and directives of the Common Core?
Timothy Shanahan, who chairs the Dept of Curriculum and Instruction at the College of Education a [...]

The Washington Post
The Answer Sheet
Former education commissioner blasts Common Core process — update
Posted by Valerie Strauss on February 13, 2013 at 10:45 am
Updated: Organization that helped pioneer Common Core challenges Scott’s recollection; Scott stands by comments; early Common Core Memorandum of Understanding for states.)
A [...]

Has Constructivism Increased Special Education Enrollment in Public Schools? By Nakonia (Niki) Hayes nakonia69 January 16, 2013
As a teacher and administrator for 28 years, I rebelled against the disastrous fad of constructivism that began in the 1980’s. While its drumbeaters declared it was a higher form of intellectualism, it didn’t s [...]

EN: Will the Common Core put an end to what has sometimes been termed the “math wars”? In your view, do the math standards resemble those recommended by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), and what do you make of that similarity (or lack thereof)?
WSW: The end of the math wars! You must be joking.
There will always be peop [...]

ISLAMIC MATHEMATICS – AL-KHWARIZMI
Muhammad Al-Khwarizmi (c.780-850 AD)
One of the first Directors of the House of Wisdom in Bagdad in the early 9th Century was an outstanding Persian mathematician called Muhammad Al-Khwarizmi. He oversaw the translation of the major Greek and Indianmathematical and astronomy works (includi [...]

School math books, nonsense, and the National Science Foundation
This problem comes from a 7th grade math quiz that accompanies a widely used textbook series for grades 6 to 8 called Connected Mathematics Program or CMP.[1] The solution appears in the CMP Teacher’s Guide and is supported by a discussion of sample student work.
Problem: Find [...]

In the NY Times Sunday Review (February 2, 2013) “The Boys at the Back” , there arises the question as to why boys score as well as or better than girls on most standardized test, but are far less likely to get good grades in school, take advanced classes or attend college.
Similar articles, also point out the underachievement of [...]

Thursday, April 2, 2009 Sign the petition against TERC math | click here for the link
Math Investigations is a highly controversial math program that has been removed in states, counties, and districts across the country. When you begin to read the research and unravel the data, you will begin to understand what the Board of Education, teache [...]

Click here for link .
I have more installments of my Rotten to the Core series on the federalized national curriculum “standards” coming next week. (See parts one and twohere and here.) In the meantime, I’m sharing several of the e-mails pouring in from teachers, parents, and activists across the country who are fighting this juggernaut acr [...]

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE www.nationalreview.com
America’s downfall doesn’t begin with the “low-information voter.” It starts with the no-knowledge student.
For decades, collectivist agitators in our schools have chipped away at academic excellence in the name of fairness, diversity, and social justice. “Progressive” reformers [...]

Common Core Readiness
Holt McDougal Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2 were built for the Common Core Math Standards. With program components and features designed to help prepare students for NEW high-stakes assessments, Holt McDougal Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2 Common Core Editions are focused on preparing students for the new era in mat [...]

Everyday Mathematic Program is similar to TERC Investigations – Both are Fuzzy Math Programs.
Stephanie Sawyer gives her view of the flaws of the Common Core math standards:
I don’t think the common core math standards are good for most kids, not just the Title I students. While they are certainly more focused than the previous NCTM-in [...]

Fourth- and eighth-grade students in the United States continue to lag behind students in several East Asian countries and some European nations in math and science, although American fourth graders are closer to the top performers in reading, according to test results released on Tuesday.
Fretting about how American schools compare with thos [...]

Mansfield School District piloted CPM (College Preparatory Mathematics) in 8th Grade Algebra I classes last year, yet scores did not improve.
Actually 8th grade CMT scores dropped in MATH for % AT/ABOVE Goal!
Hooray! CMT scores arrive- BUT are our kids stupide and WHO DO WE FIRE?
From September to March, Connecticut students practiced for the [...]

IMP (Interactive Math Program) is very similar to CPM (College Preparatory Mathematics). These Math Programs were used in the Railside Study. Click here.
Click here for “Do We Need a New Way to Teach Math?” and read the student comments about IMP program. Students (Jose M., Camila, Isabella, Carolina…) who studied under t [...]

The biggest fans of standardizing education are those who look at our children and see only future employees. Click here to link to article
The top-down, test-driven, corporate-styled “accountability” movement — featuring prescriptive state standards — has already done incalculable damage to our children’s classrooms, particularl [...]

Sandra Stotsky- September 23, 2010 – NY Times. Click here for link
The case for national standards rests in part on the need to remedy the inconsistent aims and inferior quality of many state standards and tests in order to equalize academic expectations for all students. The argument also addresses the urgent need to increase academic [...]

Mathematics Education: Being Outwitted by Stupidity-
The way we used to teach math mirrors our effective interventions for those students struggling as low achieving/learning disabled.
Math reformers promote a teaching approach in which understanding and process dominate over content. In lower grades, mental math and number sense are emphasiz [...]

Fairfield Board of Education 1/24/2013
Recommendation from BOE members: BOE needs to talk earlier on about the budget, not the last minute. This has been stated numerous times, but has been ignored by the Administration.
BOE members were asking the Superintendent to come up with approximately $1.5 million in cuts to the budget.
Some of the m [...]

Marks of a good mathematics program
It is impossible to specify all of the characteristics of a sound mathematics program in only a few paragraphs, but a few highlights may be identified. The most important criterion is strong mathematical content that conforms to a set of explicit, high, grade-by-grade standards such as the California [...]

The prinicipal technique in this series is the so-called guess and check method, which encourages repeated guessing of answeres, over the systematic development of standard mathematical techniques.
CPM puts low emphasis on symbol manipulation
CPM differes from traditional mathematics courses both in the mathematics that is taught and how it [...]

CCLM is dedicated to supporting the development of all leaders of mathematics education.
What are the mathematic views/philosophy of the CCLM organization ?
Walter Wakeman ,the Math Elementary Curriculum Leader in Fairfield for at least 10 years, is the President of the CCLM.
Megan Staples is the University Representative of the CCLM
John Ke [...]

Jo Boaler’s opinions on Math in the Classroom.Mathematics in the “classrooms influence, to a high and regrettable degree, the confidence students have in their own intelligence. This is unfortunate both because math classrooms often treat children harshly, …..”
The 2004 controversial Railside Research Study (San Lore [...]

CPM teaches Social Responsibility in Math Class.
“Cooperative learning teams are successful only when every member has learned the material or has helped with and understood the assignment, It is important to emphasize and evaluate individual learning in MATH so team members can appropriately support and help one another. ” Word [...]

Learn more about the CPM instructional Model for Mathematics in our district. Two Professors Jo Boaler & Megan Staples mentions the CPM teaching model was used in their Railside Study.
Megan Staples has observed several Algebra I Math Classes in our district to ensure proper implementation of this new teaching method also called COMPLEX [...]

Fairfield Secondary Math Night Presentation used the following slide to prompt the new math program CPM (College Preparatory Mathematics) which is currently being implemented in all Algebra I classes across the district this year.
Download (DOCX, 375KB)

“The low and inequitable mathematics performance of students in urban American High Schools has been identified as a critical issue contributing to societal inequities. In an effort to better the field’s understanding of equitable and successful teaching, we report results from a four-year longitudinal study “- Railside Stu [...]

College Preparatory Mathematics is built on the guiding principles of “Complex Instruction” ;an instructional method designed to make group work more effective as well as to promote equity in the classroom with the purpose of countering social and academic status differences in the classroom (Boaler, 2009).
The central part of CPM and CI ( [...]

In the Jo Boaler’s Railside Study San Lorenzo HS dedicated itself to complex instruction (guiding principles of CPM), heterogeneous grouping, problem-based integrated math.
Boaler should not assert that San Lorenzo High is outperforming the other two shcools based on Freshman Algebra scores for many reasons- two being;
1) The freshman a [...]

The Railside Study dedicated itself to using College Preparatory Math (CPM) and IMP/other reform math at San Lorenzo HS. Jo Boaler, a Standord professor, conducted a longitudinal study of three schools that’ widely known as the Railside paper. She presented the results to a standing room only crowd at the National Meeting of NCMT in [...]

Dr Title,
We received the list of math programs currently piloted in K-2. Again we are very concerned. One of the programs, TERC Investigation, is widely criticized and we are wondering why this highly contested program is being piloted. What is said about TERC;
TERC has no interest in giving classroom time to standard arithmetic, and avoids [...]

Watch how your child will be learning math!
Listen to Seattle Meterologist, MJ McDermott, explain why Investigations and Everyday Mathematics should not be used in school systems. Watch as she tackles simple standard double digit multiplication problems with complex strategies used in Investigations and Everyday Math!
Which way is easier [...]

The book provides structured guidance during class time for the students to explore questions in study teams where they can work together and exploit each other’s insights to gain understanding. The teacher is always circulating through the classroom to monitor, guide, and intervene as necessary in the discussions so that students do n [...]

Controversy over Mathematics in Penfield, NY, Public Schools
Since early 2005 a parent group in Penfield (a suburb of Rochester), New York, has been fighting for quality mathematics programs in their public schools. The parent group has a web site, Parents Concerned With Penfield’s Math Programs; please visit that site for the most up-t [...]

She explains why traditional algorithms are needed to understand higher mathematics. It is extremely important that they are practiced until they are mastered. In fact, the new Common Core Standards recommend teaching the standard algorithms.
Everyday Math, Investigations in Number, Data, and Space, and other reform math programs have been hi [...]

Teachers who participate in coaching change their practice more so than those who are not coached… Sounds Expensive! But if we are going to drastically change the instructional method of teaching math, of course we want to do it correctly… after all we don’t want the students to fail!
See CPM Methodologies to understand ho [...]

Daily activities require much more work in study teams and much less introduction and explanation of ideas by the teacher. Study teams of four can reduce the number of students in the class from thirty-six to nine. Moreover, since members of the study team respond to routine inquiries, more of the teacher’s time can be spent dealing wi [...]

College Preparatory Mathematics recommends small group work done in study teams. A major reason for developing the CPM program was to provide some flexibility in how students could learn math and thus meet the needs of a greater number of students. This teaching method is a new concept for teachers. This is the place where most teachers have [...]

Penfield School District – 8th grade Math Scores. Penfield improves after dropping Investigation Math program. You can see only 59% passed in 2006. What does this mean 2/5 students need math remediation!
Penfield’s 7th grade class in 2006 received the same passing rate!
Understand their story… click here, and click here.

Based on a six and seven year average (2006-2011/2012) Fairfield ranks third from the bottom for its Math CMT Scores (%At/Above Goal ) for each grade level when compared to 19 Districts in DRG A & B.* While other districts have shown some gains, Fairfield remains Flat across all three grades!
Download (XLSX, 17KB)
*The 2006-2012 CMT M [...]

Per CPM EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM, “Teachers who participage in coaching change their practice more so than those who are not coached.”.. Sounds Expensive! But if we are going to drastically change the instructional method of teaching math, of course we want to do it correctly… after all we don’t want the students to fail! [...]

CPM Team Roles with Study Team. Look inside the CPM Prescriptive Instructional Methods being used in the Algebra I classes this year. This is NOT ONLY a textbook but the “INSTRUCTIONAL MODEL” our District has ADOPTED for MATH!
Download (PDF, 1.18MB)

A FEW FACTS ABOUT INVESTIGATIONS MATH:
1) Investigations Math removes teaching the times tables to children and all memorization of math facts. (link)
2) There is no valid math study ever performed showing the effectiveness of Investigations Math. (link to article 1 &article 2)
3) California tried a program nearly identical to Investigati [...]

Penfield School District - 8th grade Math Scores. Penfield improves after dropping Investigation Math program. You can see only 59% passed in 2006. What does this mean 2/5 students need math remediation!
Penfield’s 7th grade class in 2006 received the same passing rate!
Parent Advocacy Group in Penfield
Please Read more..TERC Invest [...]

While the goal of bolstering high-school math is a laudable one, the success of high-school students in math depends on what they’ve learned in the lower grades. If those foundations are weak….
A successful program from Singapore tests the limits of school reform in the suburbs
By BARRY GARELICK It was another body blow to education [...]

A Textbook Case in Textbook Adoption
Barry Garelick*
It was a textbook case on how to adopt substandard math textbooks. On June 15, 2005, the Washington, DC School Board voted to adopt Everyday Mathematics (EM) for elementary schools and Connected Math Program (CMP) for middle schools. The action was a photocopy of actions taken by other scho [...]

‘I hope the Fairfield’s Board of Education will instruct the Superintendent to stop using the unapproved Algebra 1 textbook when they meet at the Jan. 15 BOE meeting,’ the writer states.
Dear Editor:
I hope the Fairfield’s Board of Education will instruct the Superintendent to stop using the unapproved Algebra 1 textbook when the [...]

Parents count on board help to change math program
Tigard-Tualatin parents concerned over college prep math get organized
By Jennifer Clampet
The Times, Dec 25, 2008
Parents concerned with a new math program in Tigard-Tualatin secondary schools officially launched a Web site recently — mathchoice.org.
The Web site launched just days after a r [...]

Performance Graphs
The following 4 graphs show the detrimental effect of CPM over time.
Graph 1: REMEDIATION RATE : The first Chart illustrates a massive increase in the number of students needing to take Remedial Math in College shortly after “reform math programs – like CPM” were implemented (a jump from 23% to 54% for remediation). Once m [...]

Does new TTSD math program add up?
Parents for Math Choice plan to speak before the Tigard-Tualatin School Board tonight
BY JENNIFER CLAMPET
The Times, Dec 11, 2008
A new approach to teaching math is shaking up more than just the classrooms in Tigard-Tualatin’s secondary schools. Some parents are afraid it’s giving their kids a shaky founda [...]

Parent writes : ” Hello, I am inquiring to find resources for imementing [implementing]everyday mathematics [Everyday Mathematics program] with a second grader who has moderate ADHD. Any thoughts? It seems difficult for him to appt the many different methods as he does best with over practice
of one method. Thanks in advance.”
A [...]

Is Algebra Necessary?
By ANDREW HACKER
A TYPICAL American school day finds some six million high school students and two million college freshmen struggling with algebra. In both high school and college, all too many students are expected to fail. Why do we subject American students to this ordeal? I’ve found myself moving toward the strong v [...]

CPM Math vs. Traditional Math
Filed under: Opinionated on Thursday, August 18, 2005
Update 9/8/07: Here’s a great article on the state of K-12 math education in the U.S. and how any constructive debate on math instruction gets squelched by politics.
Last year Hubby and I attended a math orientation to learn about the differences between two [...]

The success of Singapore’s programs relies in many ways on more traditional approaches to math education, such as explicit instruction and giving students many problems to solve, in some ways its very success represented a slap in the face to American math reformers, many of whom have worked hard to eliminate such techniques being used.
&nbsp [...]

The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD), has had its share of problems but there have been few issues quite as egregious as the “new-new” math curriculum mistakes. The curriculum problems in Santa Monica are complicated by an insidious form of discrimination where students in the more affluent neighborhood schools [...]

El Segundo– Great to see you and others getting organized. We are just getting started here. We’re in the process of forcing the district into creating a Math Advisory council made up of Teachers & Parents. We are “swallowing” hard on CPM for the first year. We are a very small district and cannot afford alternativ [...]

The faction is also concerned with the results of the 2011 Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) math scores, Marcus said. In Fairfield, 69.9 percent of high school students met the state goal for mathematics, ranking fourth in the school system’s district reference group (DRG) towns. That DRG include Greenwich (71.9 percent), Monroe ( [...]

The popular interpretation of SMP is a pedagogical agenda that features student-centered and inquiry-based approaches.
Discovery and group learning approaches to math have had poor results when they have been used in classrooms across the country.
… Such a process while eliminating what the edu-establishment views as tedious “drill and [...]

Testimony 7-7-2010 at Seattle School Board
Directors, I am Dan Dempsey 7-7-2010
From the Washington State Auditor’s Office report 7-6-10: ….. “Quote”
RESULTS Overarching Conclusion
Our audit found the School Board and executive management must improve oversight of District operations.
We noted several instances in which public assets were [...]

Although funded almost entirely by taxes levied on or real property, our locally elected board of education in Fairfield is not an agent of the town but, in fact, creature of the state.
Chapter 170 of the state General Statutes establishes the laws creating the board of education. The specific duties of the board of education are outlined in [...]

Administrators over the summer very quietly — and apparently without proper approvals — changed the methods by which math is being taught in secondary schools and switched to a new textbook that students are not allowed to take home.
In addition to using a textbook that parents can’t consult, a new teaching method was adopte [...]

Scarsdale Middle School Math
Singapore Primary Mathematics
“seeking to inspire lives of contribution through an exemplary public education in the liberal arts tradition”
“The purpose of mathematics education is to nurture an ongoing appreciation, enthusiasm and curiosity for mathematics as all students learn to effectively use mat [...]

Encourages parents to ‘preserve the process’ within the schools
Fairfield BOE website, “What Does a BOE Do?
In reaction to open board comment and ensuing questions to Dr. Title, Vice Chair Pam Iacono, floated her opinion that open board comment should be removed “as it allows the superintendent to be ambushed.”
The tension was palpable at Tue [...]

…even with the difficulties and challenges of using Singapore math in the higher grades, the benefits outweighed the drawbacks.
It is important to consider students’ current state of learning when implementing Singapore math. This is because the level of mathematical rigor in Singapore math is higher than in most U.S. math program [...]

The District has compared the number of Students receiving A’s in Algebra this year versus last. This is an interesting comparison since different tests were administered this year versus last. An administrator with an understanding of math or statistics would realize that this is like saying, “an apple is the same as an orange [...]

A New Kind of Problem: The Common Core Math Standards – by Barry Garelick from The Atlantic
Scroll down to comments: NOTE the Comment by Bill McCallum (one of the authors of the Common Core): William McCallum barrygarelick • 13 days ago
It seems strange to me to be basing a claim on a couple of sentences in a draft document about the [...]

Content Review of CPM Mathematics
With regard to mathematics content, this program does not sufficiently addrss the content standards and applicable evaluation criteria to be recommended for adoption.
In summary, most of the program is below the specified standards level and there is too much of an assumption that work will be done in teams.
[...]

Board to discuss parents’ concerns about new method for teaching math
-BOE meeting is scheduled for December 11th 7:30 p.m. in the Board of Education Central Office, 501 Kings Highway East.
-The Board of Education welcomes parents sharing information and their own perspectives on matters concerning their children.
-Parents are welcom [...]

By David Klein
Specific shortcomings
College Preparatory Math (CPM), a high school program, also requires students to use calculators almost daily. The principal technique in this series is the so-called guess-and-check method, which encourages repeated guessing of answers over the systematic development of standard mathematical techniques. B [...]

Yet to be answered from index card submitted the night of the presentation…
How many Connecticut school districts are currently using CPM and what are their standardized tests results? Do their middle school districts have more than two levels of mathematical instruction per grade level?
CPM has been around for 2 decades and has taught [...]

The following two tables illustrate the ….
In 2011, Fairfield had the lowest average SAT score compared to the surrounding towns. Fairfield’s average SAT score was 112 points lower than the average of the other towns listed. In 2012, Fairfield’s average SAT score dropped steeply. Fairfield’s average SAT score was 1 [...]

“My students actually have become better math thinkers,” said Scott Sheets, a fifth-grade math teacher at Clays Mill Elementary, which began using Singapore math this year.
As its name indicates, Singapore math was developed in the small southeast Asian nation that bears its name. It has attracted the interest of American educators because st [...]

Davidson called math a fundamental skill connecting to all other types of learning. “Math teaches you how to think,” he said. “I want our students to learn to be great thinkers.”
Singapore Math: Great and Quick Results in California and Kentucky
While Singapore math now is being taught as part of a pilot program in nin [...]

“My whole experience in math the last few years has been a struggle against the program,” Jim said recently. “Whatever I’ve achieved, I’ve achieved in spite of it. Kids do not do better learning math themselves. There’s a reason we go to school, which is that there’s someone smarter than us with somet [...]

Fairfield Board of Education member Jennifer Maxon Kennelly said she was “appalled,” about some of the things parents were telling the school board regarding the new way in which eighth grade math was being taught.
Sue Brand was first to speak after the parents finished and she asked that the matter be put on the December agenda. She had seve [...]

the Common Core defers fluency in division to grade 6. Fractions are touted as the Common Core’s greatest strength, yet the Common Core pushes teaching division of fractions to grade 6 without ever expecting students to master working with a mix of fractions and decimals. Students in Singapore, Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong achieve fluency in f [...]

Want a convenient scapegoat for our problems? Poverty. It’s there, it’s handy.
I sat through an hour meeting of our small school district’s budget committee last week, most of it devoted to bemoaning our fate as a “poor district” (over 60 percent of our kids qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, the standard definition of “poor” for schoo [...]

Today’s fashion is to throw away the textbook and to teach kids to think like mathematicians. The problem? They’re not learning how to do actual math.
This is where reform texts come in. In the early 1990’s, the National Science Foundation awarded grants to various universities and institutions to develop math programs tha [...]

The New Haven district chose the Singapore approach because it “matches so well” with the Common Core effort. The method is based on a curriculum introduced in 1992 in Singapore’s public schools. Teachers take a slow pace, focusing on thorough understanding of the fundamentals of math, with multiple approaches to the same p [...]

Singapore Math Means Hope
First, as a parent, I have been appalled by Chicago math. The “logorythmic spiral” approach described by teachers just never made sense to me. (I can’t think of other areas in life where important skill sets are taught in fragments and where necessary practice and repetition are derided as mindles [...]

Sinapore Math Source- Thinking Through Math- Schools in the News using Singapore Math Curriculum. Look at the states that have adapted the Singapore Math Curriculum http://singaporemathsource.com/curriculum/schools-in-the-news/

In 2008, I left the Paterson school district and was hired by Scarsdale Public Schools as one of three district wide Math Helping Teachers to help facilitate the adoption of Singapore Math. Scarsdale is using the Primary Mathematics Standards Edition textbooks. It is interesting to me that Scarsdale, one of highest performing and most innovat [...]

Elementary students in grades three through five will have a new math curriculum. In response, Anna Cutaia-Leonard said the school district would like to use a new math text, but now is not the right time because publishing companies are updating textbooks to Common Core Standards. She said the school district would then choose textbooks that [...]

If The Current Change in Math Curriculum Does Not Impact You This Year…Wait…It Will Next Year!
This year, the Fairfield School District has decided to purchase and utilize textbooks and a curriculum from an outside source, College Preparatory Mathematics (CPM). They are utilizing the State’s shift to the Common Core Curriculum Standards as a [...]

I’ve had 4 years of undergraduate math courses, two years of graduate math courses, and I have taught graduate-level math courses. I had never seen the “lattice” method, the Egyptian method, or any of these other alternative algorithms until last year when I looked at Everyday Math homework. Students don’t need them, and those met [...]

What is it about this new approach to teaching math that so concerned these parents? The “new-new” math classroom is based on the notion that children understand and learn only those concepts that they “construct” or discover on their own. The teacher is discouraged from providing information or imparting knowledge, an [...]

Almost everyone, from educators to government officials to industry experts, laments the lackluster abilities and performance of our nations’ students in science, technology, engineering and math (know as STEM education).Two indicators are particularly worrisome, especially as this country experiences greater global competition and high [...]

Unfortunately, research doesn’t support the superiority of discovery learning over direct instruction, as cognitive psychologist and researcher Richard Mayer pointed out in 2004.1 More recently, a 2011 meta-analysis of 580 comparisons between discovery learning and direct instruction found that direct instruction is superior to discove [...]

Many educators believe children should learn math by struggling and failing, inventing their own methods, drawing pictures and boxes, counting on fingers, play-acting, continually working in groups, and asking several classmates for help before asking the teacher. This process of learning is called constructivism (also known as “discovery” or [...]

BOE member, DeBell’s comment on Discovering Series, a constructivist math program. This is the third time he has gone through an math curriculum adoption as BOE member. Michael DeBell, Seattle School Board President, took the time to research the math curriculum recommendations in his district. He showed a great example of informed o [...]

A major CPM shortcoming is that it favors children with strong language skills. Making math all about words must be demoralizing for a lot of boys in particular who might typically excel in math but not language arts. And for the children who learn best in a structured environment, like mine, forget it. CPM is a Berkeley invention that I imag [...]

Fairfield SAT scores 2012 –
A school administrator points to the larger number of test takers as the reason for a sharp drop in the 2012 average Scholastic Aptitude Test scores at Fairfield Ludlowe High School. Margaret Boice, director of secondary education, said, noting that 317 Ludlowe students took the SAT this year, compared to 30 [...]

The new books include a literacy series called “Journeys,” a math series that focuses on Singapore Math, a teaching method in sync with the proposed Common Core State Standards being developed in the state and nationwide.
Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/New-books-arriving-in-Bridgeport-schools-3657645.php#ixzz2CyFG [...]

Vallas, regarded as a prominent public education reformer, was hired by the state-appointed school district in January. His task was to not only balance the budget but to help the district.
The plan would cut central office staff by one-third and reduce the number of school aides — there are more than 400 in the district. To compensate, [...]

The test, called the Program for International Student Assessment, has been given every three years since 2000 to 15-year-old students. Last year, when the test was administered, 60 countries participated. The test is designed to assess how prepared teenagers are in three key categories—mathematics, science and reading—versus their peers in [...]

The Singapore method continues to attract fans. Inspired by North Middlesex, 20 schools in 12 different districts across Massachusetts are now running Singapore pilot programs. North Middlesex is a farming and commuter district that’s an hour’s drive from Boston.
North Middlesex’s program got rolling soon after the educatio [...]

The U.S. economy could be $1 trillion a year stronger if Americans only performed at Canada’s level in math.
The problem America faces, then, is that its urban school districts perform inadequately compared with their suburban counterparts, and its suburban districts generally perform inadequately compared with their international count [...]

Summary: Fairfield’s annual operating budget should provide a breakdown of the cost of each service so that the people and their elected town representatives can make informed decisions about which services they want and can afford from their government. The budget should also quantify the effect of state and federal laws that require the t [...]

Opinion Section contains a middle school student’s description of CPM Math – posted Sept 2012. Her frustration is heard loud and clear… She explains that she is responsible for teaching others in her group who do not understand the math task. In addition, she is not permitted to advance once she has figured out the problem, bec [...]

Since early 2005 a parent group in Penfield (a suburb of Rochester), New York, has been fighting for quality mathematics programs in their public schools. Curricula in the Penfield schools are among the worst of the NCTM-inspired “fuzzy” mathematics programs for their respective grades: (TERC) Investigations in Number, Data, and [...]

In the Superior Court of the State of Washington, Honorable Julie Spector ruled that the board’s decision to use the Discovering series was arbitrary and capricious. She ordered the board to reconsider the matter. Seattle’s so-called “Discovery” math curriculum doesn’t add up for a Judge Spector, who rejected the style of instruction and or [...]

The Discovery series textbook focuses on helping students uncover math concepts on their own instead of laying out rules for memorization. But state math experts disagree about the effectiveness of the Discovering series. Board President Michael DeBell previously said he was not satisfied with the Discovering textbooks because they can’ [...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/09/education/08education.html?pagewanted=all
This community of 35,000 battled with the nationwide math wars, which have flared from California to Pittsburgh to the former District 2 on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, pitting progressives against traditionalists. Penfield School District began supplementing the [...]

The new math curriculum is not receiving rave reviews. It has not been successful in California and is not being used elsewhere in Connecticut. So how and why was this curriculum chosen? What makes the administration think it will be successful in Fairfield? The new demands on our curriculum to meet the guidelines of common-core standards are [...]

http://www.chelationtherapyonline.com/anatomy/p128.htm
Whole-math advocates say their methods will bring American math achievement up to world-class levels. But in fact kids in Japan, usually among the top performers on international assessments, do plenty of memorization and drill. Only after they have mastered basic skills are they allowed [...]

CPM: (College Preparatory Mathematics) A variety of Whole
Math to be given instead of Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II.
http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/1997/dec97/math_ed.html
This is an introduction to issues that have been raised concerning changes to mathematics education in the public schools in San Diego and other areas of Californ [...]

http://mathematicallycorrect.com/twocity.htm#escondido
On Jan. 20, 1998, the Escondido Union High School District (North eastern San Diego County, CA) board made some major changes in district mathematics programs. These changes were based largely on examination of the performance of students in the different programs on various nationally no [...]

http://mathematicallycorrect.com/citylist.htm
Towns in California are trying to reinstitute traditional math courses. Some towns that have used College Preparatory Mathematics (CPM) : Escondido, Hemet, Livermore, Ridgecrest, Visalia… Review the list of other towns in CA and states using “Fuzzy” Math… will you be next?

http://www.nychold.com/cpm.html
Read Reviews of CPM Math :The CPM curriculum has a middle school and a high school component. Research the critical reviews and commentaries of CPM. Additional links can be found in this review.

Excerpts from students who are against Constructivist approach to teaching math. SAFM is a small “grass-roots” action organization of students (and parents) opposed to the use of “Fuzzy” math curriculum in America’s public schools. Students report … study of College Preparatory Mathematics (CPM), a “fuzz [...]

CPM inadequately prepares students for higher math courses, such as Pre-Calculus, and Calculus. The program falls short in its organization of material, ability to promote individual thinking, and test taking methodology. The problem with the CPM program is not evident until CPM students enter the traditional Pre-Calculus level. For example [...]

A content review of CPM Mathematics. Review is provided by renowned Professor Wayne Bishop at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences California State University, LA. With regard to mathematics content, CPM does not sufficiently address the content standards and applicable evaluation criteria to be recommended for adoption. [...]

View complaints and concerns about why CPM is not working for students in Berkeley High. The CPM/IMP (College Preparatory Mathematics/ Interactive Mathematics Program)approach is not for all. Whether it will work well for any given child depends very much on his/her learning style.
http://parents.berkeley.edu/recommend/schools/BHS/math_c [...]

This article provides history on the American Mathematics Education from 1920 to the end of the 20th century. The education wars of the past century focus on the struggles between concentrated content and pedagogy. Content is framed as the answer to the question of what to teach, whereas pedagogy is the answer to the question of how to teach. [...]

This year, the Fairfield School District has decided to purchase and utilize textbooks and a curriculum from an outside source, College Preparatory Mathematics (CPM). They are utilizing the State’s shift to the Common Core Curriculum Standards as an impetus for this change. Curriculum Leaders from other Connecticut districts, such as Westpo [...]